@ultimat3/ui 20.2.0 → 21.0.0

package/CLAUDE.md

@@ -14,8 +14,9 @@ Tier 4 (moved 5 → 4 on 2026-08-19, when the `admin → ui` exception was delet
 - **No raw colours.** Only `t.role('<role>')` / `var(--color-*)`. Canonical roles live in `src/tokens/_colors.scss`; `tokens.ts` mirrors them and `tokens.test.ts` fails on drift.
 - **Logical properties only.** `margin-inline`, `inset-inline-start`, `text-align: start`. A `left`/`right` in a stylesheet is a bug.
 - **solid-js is a type-only import.** All reactive access goes through `src/theme/solid-adapter.ts`. Never `import { createSignal } from 'solid-js'`.
-- **The runtime SLOT is `src/theme/runtime-slot.ts`; the RULE is `solid-adapter.ts`, and the split is a byte measurement.** `solid()` throws `runtimeMissingError`, so it imports `../errors`, which `package.json` declares side-effectful (`registerErrorCodes()` runs at import) and no bundler may shake — so while the slot sat beside it, an island whose `mount` did nothing but `setSolidRuntime(solidRuntime)` carried @ultimat3/core's whole error registry: **5,719 B against 72 B**. One module owns `let runtime`, `solid()` reads it through `registeredSolidRuntime()`, and `barrel-bytes.test.ts` holds the ceiling at 1 kB — small enough that the registry re-entering the graph reds it.
+- **The runtime SLOT is `src/theme/runtime-slot.ts`; the RULE is `solid-adapter.ts`, and the split is a byte measurement.** `solid()` throws `runtimeMissingError`, so it imports `../errors`, which bare-imports `error-registry.ts` — the `registerErrorCodes()` call `package.json` declares side-effectful and no bundler may shake — so while the slot sat beside it, an island whose `mount` did nothing but `setSolidRuntime(solidRuntime)` carried @ultimat3/core's whole error registry: **5,719 B against 72 B**. One module owns `let runtime`, `solid()` reads it through `registeredSolidRuntime()`, and `barrel-bytes.test.ts` holds the ceiling at 1 kB — small enough that the registry re-entering the graph reds it.
 - **The barrel is the ONE import path, and component subpath exports are refused on measurement** (2026-08-23, issue #275). `import { Button } from '@ultimat3/ui'` and a deep path into `components/Button` emit the same chunk — the same MODULES, and the same bytes to the character once the bundler's own banner comments are out; so do `useUi` (14 kB) and `moneyText` (25 kB). `@ultimat3/ui/button` would be a second idiom for zero bytes. The two subpaths that exist are not exceptions to that: `./icons/*` is 1,767 data modules no bundler can split, and `./jsx-probe` is test-only and deliberately absent from the barrel. `barrel-bytes.test.ts` compares the two paths, so the day the barrel stops shaking this argument reds instead of ageing. **Not "to within the length of the entry's own module name"**, which this line said until 2026-08-25 and no build agrees with: measured, an entry file name 29 characters longer produced a chunk of identical size, and the only difference between the two minified chunks was the minifier's identifier allocation — one byte. What DOES differ, from one build to the next and with no source change at all, is whether Bun 1.4.0's shaker dropped `@ultimat3/core`'s `schema-error-codes.ts` (1,116 B, load-correlated, issues #273 #276); the test names that module rather than allowing bytes for it.
+- **`useUi()`'s server branch is a SLOT, and the module that fills it is browser-mapped** (2026-09-19, issue #490). `context.ts` is what every component's `useUi()` retains, and it imports NO value from `@ultimat3/i18n` or `@ultimat3/time`: the i18n barrel installs the framework catalog at import, so one `createTranslator`/`currentLocale` there was 16.1 kB of catalog, time and core's logger in every island with a `UiProvider` — for a branch a DOM never takes. The request readers live in `src/theme/ambient.ts`, which registers `ambientUiContext` into `src/theme/ambient-slot.ts` at import; `index.ts` imports it BARE, above every re-export, and `package.json`'s `browser` field maps that file to `ambient.browser.ts` for a browser bundler (measured on Bun 1.4.0 and 1.4.2, symlinked or not — and never at runtime, so `bun test` and SSR always get the server's). `directionOf` is `@ultimat3/core`'s for the same reason, and `fallbackTranslator` is written here with `context.test.ts` holding it member-for-member against `createTranslator({})`. The cost of the shape: a test that reaches components by module path and exercises the inert server path must `import './ambient'` itself, as `inert-render.test.ts` does — the barrel is what registers. `errors.ts` is pure now too: the `registerErrorCodes()` call is `src/error-registry.ts`, imported bare from `errors.ts`, so a bundler honouring `sideEffects` (Bun 1.4.2; 1.4.0 ignored the array, oven-sh/bun#40650) drops the registry from a chunk that reaches `errors.ts` only through the barrel — the setter island was 10,928 B on 1.4.2 before, 72 B over the floor after. `barrel-bytes.test.ts` pins the island's retained-module list: no `i18n`, `time` or `money` path, no `ambient.ts`, and nothing of this package outside a named list.
 - **`solid()` always answers off-DOM.** No registered runtime and no DOM is a *server render*, and it gets `INERT_SOLID_RUNTIME` (`src/theme/inert-runtime.ts`) — signals hold, memos recompute on read, effects never run, `useContext` returns the default. No DOM means no reactivity to lose; a **DOM** with no runtime is still `X_UI_RUNTIME_MISSING`, because that one is the theme toggle that does nothing. Never widen this to "no runtime, never throw": that is the silent degradation the split exists to prevent.
 - **`useUi()` reads the request on the server**, via `ambientUiContext()` — `currentLocale()`, `currentTimeZone()`, `useI18n()`. Those two read **core's own `Ctx.locale` / `Ctx.tz`**, which `@ultimat3/http`'s `locale` stage writes once per request; `@ultimat3/i18n` and `@ultimat3/time` publish no field of their own. Never add a second ambient store here or there — `time` kept a `ctx['timeZone']` nothing wrote until 2026-08, and the whole cost was invisible: every server-rendered date formatted in UTC under a doc comment saying it did not. `theme`/`currency` deliberately have no ambient source at all.
 - **Every locale-sensitive call takes the locale as an ARGUMENT, `toLocaleUpperCase` included.**
@@ -44,7 +45,8 @@ Tier 4 (moved 5 → 4 on 2026-08-19, when the `admin → ui` exception was delet
   (`src/components/async-branch.ts`) is the ONLY place the `(pending, failed, empty, data)` decision
   is made — `AsyncRegion` renders it and `DataTable` calls it, so a table and a card list cannot
   disagree about what "loading with stale rows" looks like. The property is structural: an
-  `AsyncState` in `pending` carries no data, so nothing can be found empty in it, and "No results"
+  `AsyncState` (declared in `@ultimat3/core` since 21.0.0 — imported here, never re-exported, so
+  it has one import path) in `pending` carries no data, so nothing can be found empty in it, and "No results"
   for one frame before the first page arrives is unconstructible rather than discouraged.
   `<AsyncRegion>`'s `empty` and `ready` are REQUIRED props, so forgetting the empty state is a type
   error. `refreshing` CARRIES the previous data — a refetch dims what is on screen (`aria-busy`) and
@@ -105,6 +107,9 @@ Tier 4 (moved 5 → 4 on 2026-08-19, when the `admin → ui` exception was delet
 | `src/theme/solid-adapter.ts` | the runtime's SHAPE, and the one rule that decides which runtime a render gets |
 | `src/theme/inert-runtime.ts` | `INERT_SOLID_RUNTIME` — what a server render IS, not a stub of what it lacks |
 | `src/theme/theme.ts` | resolution: stored choice → OS; all side effects via injected `ThemeEnv` |
+| `src/theme/ambient-slot.ts` | the module-scope slot holding the reader `useUi()` falls back to on the server — imports nothing, so a browser chunk pays nothing for it |
+| `src/theme/ambient.ts` | the server's reader (`ambientUiContext`: request locale, zone, direction, translator), registered at import; `index.ts` imports it bare, and the `browser` field maps it to `ambient.browser.ts`, which answers the defaults and registers nothing |
+| `src/error-registry.ts` | the `registerErrorCodes()` call, alone, so `errors.ts` is pure and the barrel's re-export of it costs a chunk nothing |
 | `src/theme/inline-script.ts` | anti-flash `<head>` snippet + its CSP sha256 |
 | `src/components/` | 62 components, `PascalCase.tsx` (component convention overrides the repo's kebab-case) |
 | `src/icons/glyphs/` | GENERATED: 1767 per-icon modules, `@ultimat3/ui/icons/<name>` → `icon<Name>` |
@@ -128,7 +133,7 @@ Tier 4 (moved 5 → 4 on 2026-08-19, when the `admin → ui` exception was delet
 | `src/form/field-binding.test.ts` | the WIRING, end to end: a rejection reaching `aria-invalid` and `aria-describedby` on the control it named |
 | `src/fake-dom.ts` | TEST-ONLY: a DOM where a disabled control refuses focus. Never exported from `index.ts` |
 | `src/jsx-probe.ts` | TEST-ONLY: a component's node tree, so a test can assert the props and call the handlers an element carries. `probe`/`unprobe` are the framework's ONE owner of `globalThis.React`, reached from `@ultimat3/admin` at `@ultimat3/ui/jsx-probe`; the walkers stay internal |
-| `src/barrel-bytes.test.ts` | the build error behind the two claims above: the setter's byte ceiling, and barrel-vs-deep-path parity — the second read off the RETAINED MODULE LIST (`minify: false` banners), never a byte allowance |
+| `src/barrel-bytes.test.ts` | the build error behind the three claims above: the setter's byte ceiling, barrel-vs-deep-path parity, and the theme-toggle island's retained-module list — the last two read off the `minify: false` banners, never a byte allowance |
 | `src/components/style-classes.test.ts` | the build error behind "every `styles['x']` a component names is declared in its own `.module.scss`" — under `bun test` a `.module.scss` import resolves to the file PATH, so no render can catch a dead class |
 
 ## Assumed peer contracts

package/package.json

@@ -1,13 +1,17 @@
 {
   "name": "@ultimat3/ui",
-  "version": "20.2.0",
+  "version": "21.0.0",
   "description": "SolidJS design system: semantic design tokens, dark/RTL-ready SCSS modules, a11y primitives",
   "license": "MIT",
   "type": "module",
   "sideEffects": [
-    "./src/errors.ts",
+    "./src/error-registry.ts",
+    "./src/theme/ambient.ts",
     "**/*.scss"
   ],
+  "browser": {
+    "./src/theme/ambient.ts": "./src/theme/ambient.browser.ts"
+  },
   "repository": {
     "type": "git",
     "url": "git+https://github.com/developerz-ai/ultimate.git",
@@ -44,10 +48,10 @@
     "icons": "bun run src/icons/build-icons.ts"
   },
   "dependencies": {
-    "@ultimat3/core": "20.2.0",
-    "@ultimat3/i18n": "20.2.0",
-    "@ultimat3/money": "20.2.0",
-    "@ultimat3/time": "20.2.0"
+    "@ultimat3/core": "21.0.0",
+    "@ultimat3/i18n": "21.0.0",
+    "@ultimat3/money": "21.0.0",
+    "@ultimat3/time": "21.0.0"
   },
   "peerDependencies": {
     "solid-js": "^1.9.0"

package/src/components/AsyncRegion.tsx

@@ -7,14 +7,13 @@
 // placeholder is derived from `reserve` so it cannot mismatch the loaded box, and the failure
 // renders through `ErrorState`, which is the one thing allowed to phrase an error.
 
-import { finiteCount } from '@ultimat3/core';
+import { type AsyncState, finiteCount } from '@ultimat3/core';
 import type { JSX } from 'solid-js';
 import { ariaBool } from '../a11y';
 import { cx } from '../cx';
 import styles from './AsyncRegion.module.scss';
 import {
   type AsyncBranch,
-  type AsyncState,
   asyncBranch,
   isBusyBranch,
   type ReserveBox,

package/src/components/DataTable.tsx

@@ -6,13 +6,13 @@
 // table and a card list cannot disagree about what "loading with stale rows" looks like. Only the
 // PLACEHOLDER is local, because a table's is table-shaped: rows of cells, not lines of text.
 
-import { finiteCount } from '@ultimat3/core';
+import { type AsyncState, finiteCount } from '@ultimat3/core';
 import type { JSX } from 'solid-js';
 import { ariaBool } from '../a11y';
 import { cx } from '../cx';
 import { UI_KEYS } from '../i18n-keys';
 import { useUi } from '../theme/context';
-import { type AsyncBranch, type AsyncState, asyncBranch, isBusyBranch } from './async-branch';
+import { type AsyncBranch, asyncBranch, isBusyBranch } from './async-branch';
 import styles from './DataTable.module.scss';
 import { EmptyState } from './EmptyState';
 import { ErrorState } from './ErrorState';

package/src/components/async-branch.ts

@@ -4,18 +4,11 @@
 // unreachable until a result has arrived, and a refetch keeps the previous data on screen.
 
 /**
- * What a caller hands an async region. A STATE, never a query: `@ultimat3/ui` is tier 4 and may
- * not import `query`, `action` or `realtime`, so a live-query accessor, a `createResource` and a
- * plain signal all arrive here as the same four shapes.
- *
- * `refreshing` is the one that makes search feel fast — it CARRIES the previous data, so a refetch
- * re-renders what is already on screen instead of tearing it down to a skeleton.
+ * What a caller hands an async region is `AsyncState` from `@ultimat3/core` — declared at tier 0
+ * because realtime's read hooks (tier 3) return it and ui (tier 4) consumes it, and neither may
+ * import the other that way. Imported, never re-exported: one home, one import path.
  */
-export type AsyncState<T> =
-  | { readonly status: 'pending' }
-  | { readonly status: 'refreshing'; readonly data: T }
-  | { readonly status: 'ready'; readonly data: T }
-  | { readonly status: 'failed'; readonly error: unknown };
+import type { AsyncState } from '@ultimat3/core';
 
 /**
  * The branch a region renders. `empty` and `ready` carry `busy`; `pending` and `failed` do not,
@@ -23,8 +16,9 @@ export type AsyncState<T> =
  *
  * There is no `{ kind: 'empty' }` reachable from `{ status: 'pending' }` — that is the whole
  * point of this module. "No results" rendered for one frame before the first page arrives is the
- * most common agent-authored UX bug in a list screen, and the union above makes it unconstructible
- * rather than merely discouraged: `pending` holds no data, so nothing can be found empty in it.
+ * most common agent-authored UX bug in a list screen, and `AsyncState`'s union makes it
+ * unconstructible rather than merely discouraged: `pending` holds no data, so nothing can be found
+ * empty in it.
  */
 export type AsyncBranch<T> =
   | { readonly kind: 'pending' }

package/src/error-registry.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+// @ultimat3/ui's error TITLES, registered at import. Its own module, and the one `sideEffects`
+// names, so `errors.ts` — the constructors — can be declared pure: a barrel re-export of a pure
+// module costs a chunk nothing, while a module declared side-effectful is kept by every bundler
+// that honours the field the moment the barrel is imported, which under Bun 1.4.2 put core's
+// whole error registry (~10 kB) into an island that did nothing but register a runtime.
+//
+// `errors.ts` imports this file bare, so a chunk that constructs a `UiError` still registers its
+// titles first — anchored by use, exactly as `scripts/lib/side-effects-scan.ts` describes.
+
+import { registerErrorCodes } from '@ultimat3/core';
+
+// Unconditional like every other package: every code here is ui's own, and a second package
+// claiming one has to throw X_ERROR_CODE_DUPLICATE at import. Taking the process down there is the
+// point — the alternative is two packages shipping two meanings for one code, decided by load order.
+registerErrorCodes({
+  X_TOKEN_UNKNOWN: { title: 'design token role does not exist' },
+  X_THEME_INVALID: { title: 'theme is not "light" or "dark"' },
+  X_UI_RUNTIME_MISSING: { title: 'a host capability @ultimat3/ui needs is absent' },
+  X_UI_INVALID_VALUE: { title: 'a formatting component received an unrenderable value' },
+  X_UI_FORM_PATH_INVALID: { title: 'a form control name is not a usable field path' },
+  X_UI_CONTRAST_INSUFFICIENT: { title: 'a brand palette pairing does not meet WCAG 2.2 AA' },
+  X_UI_QR_CAPACITY: { title: 'text is too long for a QR code this component can draw' },
+});

package/src/errors.ts

@@ -1,7 +1,12 @@
 // @ultimat3/ui error codes. Every throw carries a stable code, the cause, and
 // the exact fix — identical in the terminal, the browser overlay, and `--json`.
 
-import { registerErrorCodes, renderCauseValue, UltimateError } from '@ultimat3/core';
+import { renderCauseValue, UltimateError } from '@ultimat3/core';
+// The registration is `error-registry.ts`, imported bare: this module is then side-effect-free
+// as `package.json` declares it, so a bundler that honours `sideEffects` (Bun 1.4.2 does; 1.4.0
+// ignored the array, oven-sh/bun#40650) drops it from a chunk that reaches it only through the
+// barrel — and keeps it, registration included, wherever a constructor below is actually called.
+import './error-registry';
 
 export const UI_ERROR_CODES = {
   tokenUnknown: 'X_TOKEN_UNKNOWN',
@@ -15,19 +20,6 @@ export const UI_ERROR_CODES = {
 
 export type UiErrorCode = (typeof UI_ERROR_CODES)[keyof typeof UI_ERROR_CODES];
 
-// Unconditional like every other package: every code here is ui's own, and a second package
-// claiming one has to throw X_ERROR_CODE_DUPLICATE at import. Taking the process down there is the
-// point — the alternative is two packages shipping two meanings for one code, decided by load order.
-registerErrorCodes({
-  X_TOKEN_UNKNOWN: { title: 'design token role does not exist' },
-  X_THEME_INVALID: { title: 'theme is not "light" or "dark"' },
-  X_UI_RUNTIME_MISSING: { title: 'a host capability @ultimat3/ui needs is absent' },
-  X_UI_INVALID_VALUE: { title: 'a formatting component received an unrenderable value' },
-  X_UI_FORM_PATH_INVALID: { title: 'a form control name is not a usable field path' },
-  X_UI_CONTRAST_INSUFFICIENT: { title: 'a brand palette pairing does not meet WCAG 2.2 AA' },
-  X_UI_QR_CAPACITY: { title: 'text is too long for a QR code this component can draw' },
-});
-
 export class UiError extends UltimateError {
   override readonly name: string = 'UiError';
 

package/src/index.ts

@@ -6,6 +6,12 @@
 // would be TS2307 there. The reference pulls the contract along with the entry.
 /// <reference path="./scss.d.ts" />
 
+// Bare, and above every re-export: `theme/ambient.ts` registers the server's `useUi()` reader at
+// import, and a bundler may drop a re-exported module whose binding nobody used. A browser build
+// resolves this specifier to `theme/ambient.browser.ts` through `package.json`'s `browser` field,
+// so an island never carries the i18n barrel for it (issue #490).
+import './theme/ambient';
+
 export type {
   FocusTrap,
   LiveRegionAttrs,
@@ -45,7 +51,6 @@ export { shellIds, shellLandmarks } from './components/app-shell-view';
 export type {
   AsyncBranch,
   AsyncFlags,
-  AsyncState,
   ReserveBox,
 } from './components/async-branch';
 export {
@@ -290,11 +295,11 @@ export {
   TAB_SELECTOR,
   tabStopIndex,
 } from './roving';
+export { ambientUiContext } from './theme/ambient';
 export type { Brand, BrandInput, FontSlot } from './theme/brand';
 export { brandStyleCspSource, brandStyleTag, defineTheme, FONT_SLOTS } from './theme/brand';
 export type { Direction, UiContextValue } from './theme/context';
 export {
-  ambientUiContext,
   defaultUiContext,
   fallbackTranslator,
   UI_DEFAULT_CURRENCY,

package/src/theme/ambient-slot.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+// The module-scope slot holding the reader `useUi()` falls back to when no Solid runtime is
+// registered — a server render. Its own module for the same reason `runtime-slot.ts` is: the
+// server's reader (`ambient.ts`) reaches `@ultimat3/i18n` and `@ultimat3/time`, and a slot that
+// sat beside it would put the framework catalog in every browser chunk that calls `useUi()`.
+// The slot itself imports nothing.
+
+import type { UiContextValue } from './context';
+
+export type AmbientUiReader = () => UiContextValue;
+
+let reader: AmbientUiReader | null = null;
+
+/** Called once, at import, by `ambient.ts`; a browser build never reaches that module. */
+export function setAmbientUiReader(next: AmbientUiReader): void {
+  reader = next;
+}
+
+export function registeredAmbientUiReader(): AmbientUiReader | null {
+  return reader;
+}

package/src/theme/ambient.browser.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+// What a browser bundler gets in place of `ambient.ts` — `package.json`'s `browser` field maps
+// one file to the other. A browser has no request context: `useUi()` in a DOM reads the Solid
+// context a `UiProvider` filled, and throws (`solid()`, X_UI_RUNTIME_MISSING) before it could ever
+// fall back to an ambient reader. So nothing is registered here, and the same export answers the
+// package defaults — which is exactly what the server's reader answers outside a request.
+
+import { defaultUiContext, type UiContextValue } from './context';
+
+export function ambientUiContext(): UiContextValue {
+  return defaultUiContext();
+}

package/src/theme/ambient.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+// The presentation context of a SERVER render, read from the request the framework already
+// resolved — and the one module of the theme directory that reaches `@ultimat3/i18n` and
+// `@ultimat3/time` for a value. `index.ts` imports it bare, so every server that imports the
+// barrel has the reader registered before the first `useUi()`; `package.json`'s `browser` field
+// maps this file to `ambient.browser.ts` for a browser bundler, which is what keeps the i18n
+// barrel — and the framework catalog it installs at import — out of an island chunk (issue #490).
+
+import { currentDirection, currentLocale, useI18n } from '@ultimat3/i18n';
+import { currentTimeZone } from '@ultimat3/time';
+import { setAmbientUiReader } from './ambient-slot';
+import { UI_DEFAULT_CURRENCY, type UiContextValue } from './context';
+
+/**
+ * `currentLocale()` and `currentTimeZone()` are the ambient answers `@ultimat3/i18n` and
+ * `@ultimat3/time` keep on the request context, and `useI18n()` is the translator built from the
+ * registered catalogs. No second ambient store, and no process-wide default — outside a request
+ * each of them returns its own configured fallback, which is where `defaultUiContext()`'s values
+ * come from in the first place.
+ *
+ * `theme` and `currency` have no ambient source and are not given one. The server cannot know the
+ * theme — `data-theme` is decided in the browser by the anti-flash script — and a default display
+ * currency is business convention: a `Money` carries its own, and an app that wants another for
+ * bare minor units wraps `<Money currency="EUR">` once (axiom 8).
+ */
+export function ambientUiContext(): UiContextValue {
+  return {
+    theme: 'light',
+    locale: currentLocale(),
+    timeZone: currentTimeZone(),
+    currency: UI_DEFAULT_CURRENCY,
+    dir: currentDirection(),
+    t: useI18n(),
+  };
+}
+
+// At module scope, and that is the point: registration an importer can forget is not registration.
+setAmbientUiReader(ambientUiContext);

package/src/theme/context.ts

@@ -1,19 +1,17 @@
 // The ambient presentation contract every component reads: theme, locale, tz, currency, direction,
 // translator. Formatting components take nothing from a process-wide default — it arrives from
 // `UiProvider` where a Solid runtime is registered, and from the request everywhere else.
+//
+// This module is what every component's `useUi()` retains, so it imports NO value from
+// `@ultimat3/i18n` or `@ultimat3/time`: the i18n barrel installs the framework catalog at import,
+// and the request readers live in `ambient.ts`, reached through `ambient-slot.ts` (issue #490).
 
-import type { Translator } from '@ultimat3/i18n';
-import {
-  createTranslator,
-  currentDirection,
-  currentLocale,
-  type Direction,
-  directionOf,
-  type Locale,
-  useI18n,
-} from '@ultimat3/i18n';
-import { currentTimeZone, type TimeZone } from '@ultimat3/time';
+import type { Direction } from '@ultimat3/core';
+import { directionOf } from '@ultimat3/core';
+import type { Locale, Translator } from '@ultimat3/i18n';
+import type { TimeZone } from '@ultimat3/time';
 import type { Theme } from '../tokens/tokens';
+import { registeredAmbientUiReader } from './ambient-slot';
 import { hasSolidRuntime } from './runtime-slot';
 import { type SolidContext, type SolidRuntime, solid } from './solid-adapter';
 
@@ -35,9 +33,23 @@ export const UI_DEFAULT_LOCALE: Locale = 'en';
 export const UI_DEFAULT_TIME_ZONE = 'UTC' as TimeZone;
 export const UI_DEFAULT_CURRENCY = 'USD';
 
-/** Loud-miss translator: a forgotten catalog key renders ⟦key⟧, never blank. */
+/**
+ * Loud-miss translator: a forgotten catalog key renders ⟦key⟧, never blank.
+ *
+ * Written here rather than as `createTranslator({}, locale)`, and behaviourally the same call: an
+ * empty catalog has no key, so every lookup is a miss, `has` is false, `raw` is undefined and
+ * `keys` is empty — `context.test.ts` holds each of those against `@ultimat3/i18n`'s own. What
+ * the spelling buys is that a browser chunk with a `UiProvider` in it no longer reaches the i18n
+ * barrel for a translator that cannot translate.
+ */
 export function fallbackTranslator(locale: Locale = UI_DEFAULT_LOCALE): Translator {
-  return createTranslator({}, locale);
+  const miss = (key: string): string => `⟦${key}⟧`;
+  return Object.assign(miss, {
+    has: (): boolean => false,
+    raw: (): string | undefined => undefined,
+    keys: (): string[] => [],
+    locale,
+  });
 }
 
 export function defaultUiContext(): UiContextValue {
@@ -51,30 +63,6 @@ export function defaultUiContext(): UiContextValue {
   };
 }
 
-/**
- * The presentation context of a server render, read from the request the framework already
- * resolved: `currentLocale()` and `currentTimeZone()` are the ambient answers `@ultimat3/i18n` and
- * `@ultimat3/time` keep on the request context, and `useI18n()` is the translator built from the
- * registered catalogs. No second ambient store, and no process-wide default — outside a request
- * each of them returns its own configured fallback, which is where `defaultUiContext()`'s values
- * come from in the first place.
- *
- * `theme` and `currency` have no ambient source and are not given one. The server cannot know the
- * theme — `data-theme` is decided in the browser by the anti-flash script — and a default display
- * currency is business convention: a `Money` carries its own, and an app that wants another for
- * bare minor units wraps `<Money currency="EUR">` once (axiom 8).
- */
-export function ambientUiContext(): UiContextValue {
-  return {
-    theme: 'light',
-    locale: currentLocale(),
-    timeZone: currentTimeZone(),
-    currency: UI_DEFAULT_CURRENCY,
-    dir: currentDirection(),
-    t: useI18n(),
-  };
-}
-
 let cached: {
   readonly runtime: SolidRuntime;
   readonly context: SolidContext<UiContextValue>;
@@ -99,8 +87,15 @@ export function uiContext(): SolidContext<UiContextValue> {
  * Solid context is provably empty — an inert tree is walked outside every owner, so `useContext`
  * returns the context's default value even with a real runtime registered — so reading the
  * request's own answers is strictly more true than reading a provider that provided nothing.
+ *
+ * Those answers come through the slot: `ambient.ts` registers `ambientUiContext` when the barrel
+ * is imported, and a browser build — where this branch is unreachable — never has it. The
+ * defaults are the fallback for a caller that reached this module without the barrel, which is
+ * what `ambientUiContext()` itself answers outside a request.
  */
 export function useUi(): UiContextValue {
   const runtime = solid();
-  return hasSolidRuntime() ? runtime.useContext(uiContext()) : ambientUiContext();
+  if (hasSolidRuntime()) return runtime.useContext(uiContext());
+  const ambient = registeredAmbientUiReader();
+  return ambient === null ? defaultUiContext() : ambient();
 }

package/src/theme/provider.tsx

@@ -1,7 +1,10 @@
 // UiProvider — the single place an app injects presentation context. Reactive
-// access goes through the Solid adapter, so this file imports only solid types.
+// access goes through the Solid adapter, so this file imports only solid types — and only TYPES
+// from `@ultimat3/i18n`: `directionOf` is core's, because a value import of the i18n barrel is
+// the framework catalog in every island chunk with a provider (issue #490).
 
-import { directionOf, type Locale, type Translator } from '@ultimat3/i18n';
+import { directionOf } from '@ultimat3/core';
+import type { Locale, Translator } from '@ultimat3/i18n';
 import type { TimeZone } from '@ultimat3/time';
 import type { JSX } from 'solid-js';
 import { providerNeedsRuntimeError } from '../errors';